Oscar Piastri: Leading in the individual competition doesn't change anything.

      Having won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri led the personal standings for the first time in his career. In an interview after the finish, the Australian McLaren driver said that he wants to remain the leader after the final race of the season.

      Q: Oscar, great performance. The car had an amazing pace and you drove the race flawlessly. Which aspect of the victory did you like the most?Oscar Piastri: To be honest, I liked the fact that I crossed the finish line first. It was not an easy victory. The start turned out to be difficult, as well as the first segment behind Max. But once I was on an empty highway, it became easier to control the situation. But I still couldn't take my foot off the gas pedal.

      The race turned out to be difficult, Max was driving very fast behind, so we had to constantly attack. And yes, although I had everything under control, the race turned out to be more difficult than I would have liked.

      Q: You showed your best lap on the last lap. Does this mean that, if necessary, you could add more during the race?Oscar Piastri: Maybe. I do not know how long I could have maintained this pace, but I feel that I took a decent risk over the course of the race. On the last lap, I wanted to check what stock I still had, but I definitely didn't risk going over the edge.

      We had a good pace on an empty track, but at the end of the segment on Medium I couldn't match Max. So our advantage in pace is not as big as I would have liked, but it turned out to be enough.

      Q: Lando Norris said after the finish that Red Bull had the fastest car in the race. Do you agree with him?Oscar Piastri: No, I think our car was still faster. It was just difficult to drive in the "dirty" air behind another car. What I can say for sure is that Max was faster in the race than I expected.

      There is no surprise that Max is fast on one lap, but in the race I did not expect such problems at the end of the segment on Medium. Obviously, we still have work to do. We have a very good car, but on tracks like Suzuka or here, with similar characteristics, Max and Red Bull were closer. But we still have the advantage. Yes, it's not that big on tracks of this type, but at the moment we have a very strong car.

      Q: Can you tell us your vision of what happened at the start and in the first two corners?Oscar Piastri: I got off to a great start and caught up with Max. From that moment on, I knew that I had to slow down late enough, but I also knew that another car would enter the turn next to me.

      We both braked extremely late. I braked as late as possible to stay within the boundaries of the track. Considering the subsequent events, everything happened as it should have happened.

      Question: You have become the leader of the personal standings. Does it change anything for you?Oscar Piastri: No. I still want and will try to win every race I can. I've said before that I'm not bothered by the fact that I'm in the lead in the individual competition. The start of the season in Melbourne wasn't very good in terms of results, but now I feel like I'm in good shape.

      The leadership in the individual standings was the result of the hard work we have done this offseason. I've worked hard for this, the team has worked hard. I'm more proud of that than just being a leader in the individual competition. Ultimately, I want to be in the lead in the individual standings after the twenty-fourth stage, not the fifth.